8 – 12 November 2018
Ways With Southwold L
Words
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WELCOME ABOARD The Ways With Words team is delighted to drop anchor in sunny Southwold for five days of words and ideas with a festival packed to the gunnels with some familiar and some new faces. Alongside political events about ‘The Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher and the turbulent times of Theresa May, we will explore the seven deadly sins, the relationship between Queen Victoria and the Russian royal family, as well as sailing and adventure. We are also introducing two evening events, one with comedian Tim FitzHigham and an evening with Lillian Bellamy (Sunny Ormonde) from the Archers. Batten down the hatches, grab a drink from the bar and get ready to be entertained. All aboard the SS Ways With Words as we hoist the sail. Leah Varnell (General Manager and Festival Curator)
With thanks to: Adnams Hotels
There are many ways to gently entertain yourself in Southwold in November. You can listen to the waves crashing on the shore, or you can enter Southwold Arts Centre / St. Edmunds Hall and hear writers making waves in their talks. You can enjoy a drink of beer at one of the Adnams hotels (brewed in Southwold; smell the air) and watch the literary world go by. You can walk by the picturesque harbour and play at spotting the boats and huts photographed for the Ways With Words brochure. You can browse the shelves of the Southwold Bookshop. Better still you can look at books in the bookshop in the foyer at Southwold Arts Centre and plan which you might like to get signed for yourself, a friend or a family member. (THINK CHRISTMAS! There’s no better present than a personally signed book.) Enjoy yourself in Southwold. Welcome to this special bit of the East coast. Welcome to Ways With Words. Kay Dunbar (Festival Director)
Official Festival Bookseller
Festival Facts
All of the festival events (except event 19) take place in the Southwold Arts Centre (aka St Edmund’s Hall) which is situated on Cumberland Road, IP18 6JW.
Southwold Books Official Festival Bookseller
Adnams’ Cellar & Kitchen Store On Friday 9 November from 6pm - 7.30pm Adnams invites all festival-goers to call in to the Cellar & Kitchen Store on Victoria Street for a browsing drinks reception.
There is on-road parking around the Arts Centre and the town’s car parks are approx. a 10 minute walk. There will be a small café running upstairs at the Arts Centre during the festival serving hot drinks, cakes, soup, and snacks.
Southwold Books
Join us at the S o u t hevents wold festival ooks forB signings
The bar will be serving drinks during the interval for the evening events.
Southwold WWW Advert.indd 1
10/07/2018 15:39
Perfect for Christmas shopping
© Juliana Johnston
© Jonathan Ring
The Secret Life of Britain’s Country Houses 1939-45 1) 1.30pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 The dark days of the second world war saw thousands of Britain’s greatest country houses requisitioned for the housing of armed forces, secret services, children, the elderly and infirm. Social historian Julie Summers provides a glimpse of life in some of these monumental homes, as they opened their doors to spies, warriors and women. Our Uninvited Guests (Simon & Schuster)
Thursday Day Ticket : £30
Adam Sisman
Caroline Slocock
2) 3.15pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Award-winning writer Adam Sisman brings together a second enthralling collection of the letters of Patrick ‘Paddy’ Leigh Fermor. From a chance conversation between Leigh Fermor and Anthony Eden, to encounters with Camilla Parker-Bowles and Peter Mandelson, join Adam Sisman as he reexplores the restless curiosity of one of the greatest travel writers of the 20th century. More Dashing: Further Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor (Bloomsbury)
3) 5pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Left-wing feminist and former private secretary to Margaret Thatcher, Caroline Slocock suggests it’s time to rewrite how we portray powerful women and accept that Margaret Thatcher was ‘one of us’. Caroline takes a political and personal look at life inside Thatcher’s No. 10 during its dying days and reflects on women and power then and now. People like us: Margaret Thatcher and Me (Biteback Publishing)
Glimpses of The Great and The Good
The Truth About the Iron Lady
THURSDAY 8 NOVEMBER
Julie Summers
© Charlie Carter
FRIDAY 9 NOVEMBER
Michael Bird
The Lives of Artists 4) 10am Southwold Arts Centre £12 Drawing on his research in the Artists’ Lives audio archive at the British Library, art historian Michael Bird explores the life stories, childhood memories, family life and creative practice of modern and contemporary British artists including Terry Frost, Gillian Ayres, Peter Blake and Anthony Caro. Studio Voices: Art and Life in 20th-Century Britain (Lund Humphries)
Zeb Soanes and James Mayhew
A Tail of the City – Urban Foxes 5) 11.45am Southwold Arts Centre £12 Radio 4’s news presenter Zeb Soanes teams up with award-winning illustrator James Mayhew to bring a celebration of the life of the urban fox. Supported by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Zeb traces the life of Gaspard the Fox as he sets out for nightly adventures and food in the city landscape. Gaspard The Fox (Graffeg Limited)
Friday Day Ticket : £50 (not including 8pm event)
Timothy Bentinck
Behind the Scenes of The Archers 7) 1.30pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 For five million loyal listeners of BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Archers’, Timothy Bentinck, the Earl of Portland, has the been voice of David Archer since 1982. He offers a behind-themicrophones glimpse of the longest running drama series in the world. Being David Archer: And Other Unusual Ways of Earning a Living (Constable) NB Time change to printed brochure.
Frances Welch
Family, Politics and Betrayal – the Ill-Fated Royal Alliance 6) 3.15pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Sunday Telegraph writer and author Frances Welch recounts three extraordinary meetings between Queen Victoria and the Russian Royal family. They were encounters that had far reaching consequences for 19th century Europe and beyond. The Imperial Tea Party (Short Books) NB Time change to printed brochure.
Kenneth Baker
Sins and Sinners 8) 5pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Former Conservative MP Kenneth Baker explores how the Seven Deadly Sins have shaped history from the Greek and Roman civilisations, through their heyday in the middle ages, when sinners really believed they could go to hell for all eternity, to the secular world of today where they are still an alluring and destructive force. On the Seven Deadly Sins (Unicorn Press)
Friday Day Ticket : £50 (not including 8pm event)
An Evening with
Tim FitzHigham
Conquering the Channel in a Piece of Plumbing Festival Extra (A) 8 - 10pm Southwold Arts Centre £14 (includes interval) A multi-award-winning comedian and writer Tim FitzHigham tells the tale of the deathdefying 200-mile journey he undertook in his antique Thomas Crapper bath and how this resulted in meeting the Queen. All At Sea: One Man. One Bathtub. One Very Bad Idea (Preface Publishing)
FRIDAY 9 NOVEMBER
“Tim FitzHigham is unhinged, he’s completely without hinges” Eddie Izzard
SATURDAY 10 NOVEMBER
Alistair Carr with Tim FitzHigham
Tessa Newcomb and Henry Jackson Newcomb
9) 10am Southwold Arts Centre £12 Alistair Carr is an author, artist and explorer. His writing has been critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, and his art is exhibited at solo and group shows. Alistair Carr talks to Tim FitzHigham about his paintings, his creative life and the wilderness journeys that are the source of his inspiration. The Nomad’s Path: Travels in the Sahel (I.B. Tauris)
10) 11.45am Southwold Arts Centre £12 Having time to pause and look at life was important to artist Mary Newcomb. Her daughter, Tessa Newcomb, artist, and her grandson, Henry Jackson Newcomb, artist and gallery curator (of a new contemporary art gallery in Norwich) have compiled a beautiful book using Mary Newcomb’s diaries and paintings. Both were influenced by her close observation of the world. Drawing From Observation (Lund Humphries)
Creative Explorations
Mary Newcomb – Close Observer
Saturday Day Ticket : £50 (not including 8pm event)
Matthew Dennison
The Cleverest Queen Consort
11) 1.30pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 History has forgotten Caroline of Ansbach, yet in her lifetime she was compared to Elizabeth I. She was the intellectual superior of her buffoonish husband George II and is credited with hastening the Enlightenment. Matthew Dennison offers a portrait of an 18th century woman of great political astuteness and ambition. The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline Ansbach (William Collins)
© Roddy Peters
Unveiling a Vanished World 12) 3.15pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Dr. Irving Finkel, Assyriologist for the British Museum, takes us back 3000 years to a time when writing was rendered in the world’s oldest script. Set against the ancient landscape of ancient Mesopotamia, he reveals a shocking narrative of violence, exorcism, man and magic, in which reality and horror entwine. The Writing in the Stone (Medina Publishing)
Salley Vickers
The Joy of Reading 13) 5pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 At a time when libraries are under constant threat of closure Salley Vickers’ latest novel ‘The Librarian’ is timely. The story charts the consequences of a young woman who takes up the position of a children’s librarian in a quaint market town. The Librarian (Viking)
Saturday Day Ticket : £50 (not including 8pm event)
Sunny Ormonde
“There is Something For Everyone Darling…” Festival Extra (B) Southwold Arts Centre 8 - 10pm (includes interval) £14 The outrageous and raunchy Lilian Bellamy has been played by Sunny Ormonde in BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Archers’ for the past 12 years. She offers an evening of anecdotes and banter, plus a signed Archers script for the most original Archers question.
SATURDAY 10 NOVEMBER
Irving Finkel
© Alister Thorpe
SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER
Blake Morrison
John Crace
Helena Kennedy
14) 10am Southwold Arts Centre £12 The literary detective story is poetically reimagined in Blake Morrison’s latest novel. When a man becomes the literary executor of a friend’s estate the discovery of unpublished material is potentially explosive. Blake Morrison exposes the frailty of human relationships in the face of moral dilemma, sexual obsession and scandal. The Executor (Penguin Random House)
15) 11.45am Southwold Arts Centre £12 During her turbulent first year, Theresa May’s malfunctioning public appearances and misguided slogans have prompted John Crace’s coinage of the term ‘Maybot’. As parliamentary sketch writer for the Guardian, he has compiled a collection of his witty sketches to document May’s time in power. I, Maybot: The Rise and Fall (Faber & Faber)
16) 1.30pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 In the High Court, only 21% of judges are women. In female prisons, 84% of inmates are unjustly held for non-violent offences. Baroness Kennedy QC cross-examines the gendered exclusion and oppression of the British Justice System, asking how we can bring greater equality to a society that is currently failing the rights of women. Eve Was Shamed: How British Justice is Failing Women (Chatto & Windus)
A Literary Detective Story
Sunday Day Ticket : £50
Strong and Stable – Theresa May’s Annus Horribilis
After #metoo – Objection and objectification
Single-Handed – Beyond the Golden Globe Race 17) 3.15pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 At 29, unknown sailor Robin KnoxJohnston undertook the gruelling Golden Globe Race. He became the first man to complete a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the Globe. Fifty years on, Sir Robin reminisces on memorable races and shares his wealth of experience on seamanship and seafaring. Knox-Johnston on Seamanship & Seafaring (Fernhurst Books Ltd)
Sunday Day Ticket : £50
Alan Johnson
Music of My Youth 18) 5pm Southwold Arts Centre £12 Former Home Secretary for the Labour Party and award-winning author Alan Johnson transports us to a world that is no longer with us – a world of Dansettes and jukeboxes, smoky coffee shops and dingy dance halls – adding a fourth dimension to the story of his life. In My Life: A Music Memoir (Bantam Press)
SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER
Robin Knox-Johnston
MONDAY 12 NOVEMBER
There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Michael Buerk
Reasons to be Cheerful 19) 10.30am St Edmund’s Church £12 After a working lifetime spent reporting disaster and predicting doom Michael Buerk has had a change of heart. He will argue that we are living in the safest, most prosperous, most sensible and happiest period in human history and that despite Brexit, Trump and Kim Jong-un the world is full of reasons to be cheerful. Please note: This event takes place in St. Edmund’s Church.
Dates for your Diary: Words by the Water in the Lake District 8 – 17 March 2019
Ways With Words Holiday Courses Writing. Art and Italian Language Courses in Italy Villa Pia, Umbria, Italy Week one: 22 – 29 Sept. 2018 Week two: 29 Sept. – 6 Oct. 2018
Ways With Words at Dartington Hall, Devon 5 – 15 July 2019
Become a Friend of Ways With Words and receive hard copies of all our programmes. Many people use the Friends’ early booking scheme when applying for tickets. Call 01803 867373 or email admin@wayswithwords.co.uk
With thanks to Suffolk Secrets www.suffolk-secrets.co.uk
And back in Southwold, Suffolk for Southwold Ways With Words 7 – 11 November 2019
TERMS & CONDITIONS Ways With Words (WWW) reserves the right without prior warning to alter the programme if circumstances dictate.
Inspiring landscapes • lovely local walks • delicious food All abilities are catered for. All activities are optional. www.wayswithwords.co.uk
For full details of our policy on event cancellations, ticket refunds, exchanges and re-sales please refer to the website www.wayswithwords.co.uk/terms LOST TICKETS: Please take great care of your tickets. WWW will not replace lost tickets.
PACKAGES
Ways With Words offers Bed & Breakfast packages (inclusive of tickets to events and an allowance for dining) at both the newly refurbished Swan Hotel and the everpopular Crown Hotel in Southwold. The Swan package is for 4 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) and includes: – tickets for all events during the festival except the evening events on Fri and Sat. – a £50 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner. The Crown package is for either: • 4 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) and includes: – tickets for all events during the festival (except the evening events on Fri and Sat.) – a £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel or, • First 3 nights B&B (Thurs, Fri, Sat nights), and includes: – tickets for all events on Thurs, Fri, Sat (except the evening events on Fri and Sat.) – a £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel or, • Last 3 nights B&B (Fri, Sat, Sun nights), and includes: – tickets for all events on Sat, Sun, Mon (except the evening event on Sat.) – a £35 allowance per person, per day for lunch or dinner at the Crown Hotel. Packages can be booked at any time using the form opposite or by telephone - 01803 867373 (NB.Our office will have limited opening during August.)
HOW TO BOOK Friends’ booking will start on Tuesday 11 September (post & phone only) (4 tickets / event). General booking will start on Tuesday 18 September Debit / Credit Card Payments Bookings using cards can be made by telephone: 01803 867373 and online: wayswithwords.co.uk (online ticket sales available from 18 Sept.) Cheque Payments The booking form opposite can be used to book tickets for individual events by post. Please send cheques payable to ‘Ways With Words’ enclosing s.a.e. to: Ways With Words, Droridge Farm, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6JG Any postal bookings received before booking opens will be filed in order of receipt but will not be processed until booking opens.
If you are already a Friend please tick the following box.
TOTAL
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Becoming a Friend If you would like to join as a Friend of Ways With Words and benefit from the advance booking period as well as receiving programmes for all of Ways With Words’ festivals tick the box and add £15 to your order total.
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Terms and Conditions Payment in full is required at the time of booking. Cancellations cannot be refunded. Customers are strongly advised to take out holiday insurance.
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Postcode
Rover Tickets If you are not on one of the packages but would like to attend a lot of events you can buy a Rover Ticket which includes events 1 – 19 (not Festival Extra (A) or (B)) for the special price of £175
Event 1) Julie Summers 2) Adam Sisman 3) Caroline Slocock All-day Thursday 4) Michael Bird 5) Soanes & Mayhew 6) Frances Welch 7) Timothy Bentinck 8) Kenneth Baker All-day Friday FE (A) Tim FitzHigham 9) Carr & FitzHigham 10) Newcomb & Newcomb 11) Matthew Dennison 12) Irving Finkel 13) Salley Vickers All-day Saturday FE (B) Sunny Ormonde 14) Blake Morrison 15) John Crace 16) Helena Kennedy 17) Robin Knox-Johnston 18) Alan Johnson All-day Sunday 19) Michael Buerk Rover Ticket (events 1 - 19)
Address
Prices are per person sharing twin / double. Please circle the package you would like. Swan Crown Crown 4 night 4 night 3 night Excellent £862 £682 £473 single occ. £1312 £1022 £730 Fabulous £972 £742 £518 single occ. £1532 £1132 £815 Outstanding £1162 £782 £548 single occ. £1912 £1202 £865 Single Room please phone 01803 867373
INDIVIDUAL AND DAY TICKETS
Name
PACKAGES
Kenneth Baker Timothy Bentinck Michael Bird Michael Buerk Alistair Carr John Crace Matthew Dennison Irving Finkel Tim FitzHigham Alan Johnson Helena Kennedy Robin Knox-Johnston James Mayhew Blake Morrison Henry Jackson Newcomb Tessa Newcomb Sunny Ormonde Adam Sisman Caroline Slocock Zeb Soanes Julie Summers Salley Vickers Frances Welch
Tickets & Information 01803 867373 wayswithwords.co.uk